HAAS Vf-1 tapping issues

I have a crazy one here... A few weeks ago we fired up our Haas (Which we run almost daily) and we had a "157 Motor Interface PCB Failure" We hit reset and it cleared fine. Just for grins I opened the cabinet and took a peak.. The brake resistors were RED HOT. Shut the machine down and powered up back.. This time we got a Spindle Servo error, I looked in the cabinet and had an Er3 on the spindle drive (Magnatek) and once again the brake resistors were glowing red... We shut the machine down tested the resistors they tested fine. I unhooked the resistors from the drive and powered it back up. Still had the Spindle alarm, and the ER 3 on the drive. We concluded the drive was faulty after some more trial and error...

This is going to be a long one so please bare with me... We ordered a used drive from a local company we do a lot of work with and installed it. At this point we powered up the machine and had no issues with the brake resistors... HOWEVER now we could get get the machine to shift into high gear AND the control was not responding to an M5. It would stop for the tool change but the spindle would start before the carousel even started to move...

We worked through the diagnostics on screen and seen that we weren't even getting the output for the gear change.. With some help from Haas we concluded the processor board had also failed.. Well Haas wanted $2400 for a new board.. We went back to the local company here knowing they had 4 of these VF1's (with the same production year) they had parted out. They still had 1 processor board left. We bought the board and installed it. I was on vacation when the new board was installed and requested that the guy who was putting it in took pictures of all parameter and setting screens.. Well he took photos of a few screens but not all....

So with the "new" processor board put in we were able to get our gear changes working properly and traced the M5 issue to the spindle load meter wiring being connected to the input signal on the drive...

We had a orientation issue and had to adjust the shot pin up top.. We are assuming that when the tool change was taking place and the spindle was starting it must have caused the mechanism to slip.. So we fixed that and "thought" we were good..

The issue that is there now is in our tapping cycle... The head comes in and taps the hole ok... BUT when the spindle reverses there is a delay in when the Z axis retracts. So the spindle is in the part turning in reverse well before the axis begins to retract.. I am hoping this is something in a parameter I have missed but unfortunately they were not backed up properly.. And yes I know we should have backed them up as we tell all of our customers to do this yearly but we just don't listen to our own info...

So what I am hoping for since Haas does not have the parameters for my machine anymore is that someone here can get me a copy of Settings, Macros, and Parameters so I can compare them to what I have.... I could in theory put the old board back in and pull them but they have the machine booked for the next week solid with a bunch of drilling. But I can check parameters with it running if someone can get me a copy of theirs.. This is an older machine Production of 6/91....

Something else I will add is that this machine is equipped with the Rigid Tapping option with the encoder up top... When I turn the parameter for rigid tapping on it changes our tap cycle and instead of the spindle reversing then the delay and the Z retracts once it taps to depth the spindle stops and the Z just plain retracts out.. Doesn't even reverse the spindle... Software version is 3.7


If anyone has any thoughts other than parameters or macros I am all ears... We appreciate any insight we can get on this as I have been scratching my head....

This is definitely a tricky one. Unfortunately I won't be of to much help, but I agree that this is probably a parameter issue of not only the machine but of the drive itself. Hopefully someone will be able to help out with a similar equipped machine. What model Magnatek do you have installed?

See attached picture. Not sure if it applies, but maybe this diagram can help confirm your connections.

Good luck!

Mine is older than yours with a Frenic spindle controller but I had the same problem of the spindle reversing but not retracting immediately. The problem is the controller is not putting out the "Spindle at speed" signal. I got around this by changing the delay parameter for spindle to speed (basically ignoring whether the spindle is at speed or not before continuing). I use a tension/compression tapper and do not have the spindle encoder. Parameters 70 & 80.

magno_grail said:

Mine is older than yours with a Frenic spindle controller but I had the same problem of the spindle reversing but not retracting immediately. The problem is the controller is not putting out the "Spindle at speed" signal. I got around this by changing the delay parameter for spindle to speed (basically ignoring whether the spindle is at speed or not before continuing). I use a tension/compression tapper and do not have the spindle encoder. Parameters 70 & 80.

Click to expand...

This is GREAT input!!! Can I ask what you set your values to?

haastec said:

This is definitely a tricky one. Unfortunately I won't be of to much help, but I agree that this is probably a parameter issue of not only the machine but of the drive itself. Hopefully someone will be able to help out with a similar equipped machine. What model Magnatek do you have installed?

See attached picture. Not sure if it applies, but maybe this diagram can help confirm your connections.

Good luck!

View attachment 152061

Click to expand...

Thanks! We have the equivalent of a GPD 530 in it... I am going to check this wiring.. I do have the Haas print however which isn't the easiest to read...

magno_grail said:

Mine is older than yours with a Frenic spindle controller but I had the same problem of the spindle reversing but not retracting immediately. The problem is the controller is not putting out the "Spindle at speed" signal. I got around this by changing the delay parameter for spindle to speed (basically ignoring whether the spindle is at speed or not before continuing). I use a tension/compression tapper and do not have the spindle encoder. Parameters 70 & 80.

Click to expand...

I changed parameter 80 and it seems MUCH MUCH better! Good call on this one! We were stumped. From the manual that parameter only seemed to change the amount of time until an alarm would occur not actually control the axes... We have a job coming up that requires tapping but it looks like we are there.. Thank You Very Much!!